Women With Drive Foundation

Hey, guys. Welcome to Art A and A #97.

I think it’s Boxing Day so Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a great time with your family and friends and loved ones.

I hope it wasn’t too frazzled.

Today I’m going to talk to you about this quote that I read by Anais Nin. I actually made a caricature of this quote and of her face a couple years ago and it was used by a charity called Women with Drive Foundation.

We don’t see things as they are

It really struck me at the time and continues to resonate with me in my life:

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

It was so simple and so perfect. I wanted to talk to you about it today.

We don’t see the world as it is.

We don’t see things as they are. I think I’ve stopped believing in objective reality.

We see things as we are.

Flesh acts as a filter through which we see the world.

We see things and situations and our flesh is like an accumulation of all the thoughts and beliefs and misconceptions and wounds and loves and loses that we’ve had in this life. Our flesh becomes the lens through experiences knowledge from teachers, parents, friends, colleagues that we filter reality.

All of that together combines to create a lens through which we see the world.

The lens isn’t truth.

It’s just our perspective and perspective is reality.

It is how we see the world. It’s our truth of the world and our truth of ourselves.

I mean there’s a lot of different ways that you can be in the world. There’s a lot of different ways that you can see it.

It’s been my experience that enthusiasm, gratitude and appreciation are really the grease for making things happen in this world.

You know… that guy

Have you ever been around one of those people who just complains all the time and it’s never their fault and they’ve done nothing wrong and they’re just an innocent victim of their life where nothing works out for them, ever?

That’s because it’s what they believe.

That may have been their experience but they turn their experience into the reality of life.

Luckily, it can go both ways.

It’s probably why people who have great experiences continue to have great experiences and given opportunities because it’s what they come to expect in life.

For me, I’d rather spend my time hanging around people who can see the possibilities in life. Who can see and believe in our ability to change things. That we have the power to affect change in our life. That we are powerful co-creators of this world.

People who are engaged in life and excited and interested in what’s coming next.

I love those people.

They mirror my own engagement in life and they fill my cup when I’m feeling down.

Those are the people I want to be around.

That’s how business works too. People want to be around people that they enjoy spending time with – who make them feel good about life… who can mirror a positive experience of life and a positive expectation that life is good and benign and in it for you and not out to get you.

We had ONE job…

Our job here is to clear our lens.

We’ve all got shit on our lens – just covered in crap.

The shit isn’t real and it’s not truth.

It’s just our experience and maybe it’s cracked and distorted because we’ve been wounded in whatever ways we’ve been wounded.

Our job is to clear that and the universe will give us ample opportunities to clear it though healing.

It’s not fun. It’s often painful and sometimes it’s sad.

It’s all of those things but that’s what we’re here to do – to clean our lens and get as clear as we can to allow a true perspective as we possibly can have, through flesh.

The Kabbalah has this great example, or illustration of this idea of us as lenses of stained glass where when we are clear we allow the radiance of divinity to shine through clearly into the world… and to shine back through to us from others.

There’s the idea that as we clear our lens the radiance of divinity actually spiritualizes matter.

That that’s what we’re here to do – to clear our own flesh and our lens of distortion so that our light can shine through in pure radiance and in doing so spiritualizes matter.

It actually lifts the vibration of matter to a high energy frequency. When you do that those that are around are lifted as well and everything that you create and touch and speak is also lifted by that frequency.

Go and do that. Right?

That sounds better than being a suck ass victim. Woo-hoo. Okay.

That’s my Christmas message.

Go be a clear lens. Don’t be a suck ass victim.

Beware the Screw Tapes

Beware of the fucking voices in your head. Those shitty shitty Screw Tape voices… and just start being aware of them.

They’re the ones that start with ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘can’t’, ‘won’t’.

They’re the very declarative statements about the world.

I want you to have declarative statements but have them be ‘I will’ and ‘it will’ and ‘yes’ and ‘positive’ and ‘go forth’ and ‘do’ and ‘create’ and ‘be.’ – Wonderful.

Let those through. Be aware for the ‘shoulds’. Stop shoulding on yourself. That sucks. They suck and they’re limiting and they will fuck with your head every time.

More Anais goodness

When I was researching, trying to find out the exact wording of this actual quote, “We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.” I also stumbled on this other one by Anais Nin that is so beautiful.

That I loved and it’s perfectly suited for where I am right now and what’s happening in my life, was,

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

I love that.

LOVE that.

She’s so cool.

Check out what she’s written. Anais Nin. Like mayonnaise. I actually look up how to pronounce her name. Like mayonnaise, Anais Nin is her name.

She’s French. Colombian.
No, Cuban. Cuban-French.

Anyway, whatever. Who cares.

Merry Christmas. Happy new year.

I hope to speak with you more often and see you more clearly through my lens.
All right. See yous all laters.